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cludes three NHRA world championships, numerous divisional titles, a Spring Fling Million victory, and more than $ 2 million earned behind the wheel. In 2025, he added another remarkable feat, becoming the first driver in IHRA SuperSeries history to capture both the Top and Mod world championships.
Bogacki’ s impact extends far beyond his on-track history. Through ThisIsBracketRacing. com and its ELITE programs, he has turned decades of experience into an educational platform focused on helping racers improve their driving, preparation, and mindset. That mission now extends to Jr. Dragster racers, bringing Bogacki’ s career full circle as he helps develop the next generation.
Family, faith, humility, and a constant pursuit of personal growth remain central themes in the way Bogacki approaches both life and drag racing competition. And he’ s far from finished. In 2026, Bogacki stepped into Top Dragster while continuing to compete alongside his family and grow ThisIs- BracketRacing. Already proving he can win at the highest level in drag racing, Luke Bogacki‘ s next chapter is about passing his knowledge, perspective, and passion forward. – MADELYN ZARON
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DI
Jim Halsey
Jim Halsey’ s four consecutive PDRA Pro Nitrous world championships from 2019-2022 alone place him among the defining racers in the history of the series. His influence in the sport, though, extends far beyond those titles.
Halsey has long been one of nitrous Pro Mod’ s performance benchmarks. In 2008, he recorded the first five-second quarter-mile pass by a nitrous Pro Mod at the Shakedown at E-Town. In 2020, his Fulton-powered’ 68 Camaro ran 3.592 at 210.77 mph at Bradenton, making Halsey the first big-tire nitrous racer into the 3.50s and the first nitrous car over 210 mph in the eighth mile.
His résumé also includes wins in IHRA Pro Modified, NHRA
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Pro Mod, ADRL Pro Nitrous, and PDRA competition, along with major standalone victories at events like the Shakedown at E-Town and Bradenton Motorsports Park’ s U. S. Street Nationals and Snowbird Outlaw Nationals.
Much of that success has come with a remarkably stable group. Brandon Switzer has tuned for Halsey since 2017, while crew chief Eric Davis has worked with Halsey since 2000. Together, they developed the combination behind Halsey’ s championships, records, and consistent late-round performances.
Halsey’ s impact is equally significant outside the car. He and his wife, Cathy, have operated Cecil County Dragway since 1999, with track manager Chad Porter playing a key role in maintaining the Rising Sun, Maryland, facility’ s reputation as one of the Northeast’ s premier dragstrips. The track hosts everything from NHRA divisionals and bracket races to its monthly headsup series, the Strange Engineering Outlaw Street Car Shootout, and the event it’ s perhaps best known for, the Yellowbullet Nationals.
Whether he’ s in the driver’ s seat or preparing Cecil County for another race weekend, Halsey has spent decades raising the standard. – NATE VAN WAGNEN
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DI
Aaron Stanfield
Few drivers in drag racing present as versatile a skillset as Aaron Stanfield. While the young star is best-known for driving the Johnson’ s Horsepowered Garage / Melling Performance Pro Stock Camaro out of the Elite Motorsports camp – where he has 16 career national event wins – his accomplishments span much more than a single class.
The third-generation racer has accrued three NHRA Factory Stock Showdown world championships; he was the 2018 JEGS Allstars Super Stock winner; he’ s won three NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Division 4 championships; and in 2024, he made history by doubling up at the prestigious U. S.
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Nationals in Indianapolis, winning in both Pro Stock and Holley EFI Factory X. He’ s also competed in Stock Eliminator and Top Dragster.
Most recently, Stanfield dipped his toes into the Pro Mod waters at the Drag Illustrated Winter Series, and once again showed his driving prowess, capturing the $ 150,000 World Series of Pro Mod title, defeating Winter Series points champion Peter Norton in the winnertake-all final round.
“ Everything I’ ve done in my career to this point, whether it be sportsman racing or at my early stages of bracket racing, I’ ve put a lot of emphasis on being able to drive different cars and multiple cars at the same race,” says Stanfield.“ There’ s always learning curves, but I fully expect within a short period of time, anything I get in, to be able to compete to win and not just go make laps.” – CRAIG COOK
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DI
THE BUILDERS
Mark Micke
When it comes to jaw-dropping performances in the radial and Pro Mod world, few have done it more than Mark Micke. Many fans recall him bursting onto the Radial vs. the World scene at South Georgia Motorsports Park, piloting Jason Carter’ s infamous twin-turbo’ 78 Chevy Malibu.
In 2018, Micke stunned everyone at Donald Long’ s inaugural Sweet 16 with his 221.20 mph pass, paired with a No. 1 RvW qualifying effort at 3.623 seconds. He then defeated Ty Tutterow, Tim Slavens, Paolo Giust, and DeWayne Mills en route to a $ 101,000 payday.
“ Man, I’ m proud of that,” Micke says.“ We just came in and kicked ass.”
Micke was also the very first driver to receive an invitation to the 2023 Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod, the first year the event was held in Bradenton, Florida. He debuted his twin-turbo’ 69 Camaro at the event, and in the following years continued to put up ridiculous numbers, parking the Camaro in the winner’ s circle at the
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2024 Snowbird Outlaw Nationals, then sweeping the No. 1 qualifying position at all three 2024 / 25 DI Winter Series events – part of an incredible 13-event streak of No. 1 qualifiers.
In between, he dominated the 2024 Mid-West Drag Racing Series season, winning the points championship despite not making every event and overcoming multiple rules revisions to his combination.
While his contributions on the track are sizeable, Micke’ s influence on the business side is even bigger. As the owner of M & M Transmission since 1996, Micke’ s transmissions and torque converters are impossible to miss at pretty much every event across the country. His importance has only grown in the sport now that there is seemingly no“ offseason” in drag racing anymore.
“ The business has changed,” says Micke.“ It used to be that November, December, and January were everyone getting their stuff freshened up and working on new builds. Now they race in December, January, and February. We’ re wide open getting them what they need. We don’ t have a lot of off time.”
Micke shocked everyone at the 2025 / 26 DI Winter Series when he switched from turbos to a Harts Charger, but one thing remains constant. He will continue to put up big numbers, and M & M Transmission products will continue to dominate in the door car racing scene. – CRAIG COOK
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DI
Pat Musi
Pat Musi built his reputation behind the wheel, but his greatest impact on drag racing has come from the engine room. Pat Musi Racing Engines has spent decades pushing big-cubic-inch nitrous combinations toward more power without sacrificing durability.
An accomplished Pro Stock, Pro Street and Pro Mod racer, Musi won eight Pro Street world championships, scored victories in NHRA and IHRA Pro Mod, and finished fourth in the 1981 NHRA
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY LUKE NIEUWHOF, NHRA, TARA BOWKER, GARY ROWE |